Research and analysis

Universal Credit declarations (claims) and advances: management information

Management information providing daily counts of Universal Credit declarations (claims) and advances from 1 March to 23 June 2020.

From:
Department for Work and Pensions
Published
5 May 2020
Last updated
30 June 2020 — See all updates

Documents

Universal Credit management information tables: 1 March to 23 June 2020

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Note about the methodology used and application of the Code of Practice for Statistics

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Details

This is the last release of this weekly management information. After this release, Universal Credit information will continue to be released in the monthly and quarterly official statistics publications.

These management information (MI) tables are drawn from data extracts from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) administrative systems used to manage and process claims for Universal Credit.

The management information is a view of what is recorded on the administrative data and have not been quality assured and processed to the standards required to be official statistics.

Moreover, they will not have been derived to the same methodology as official statistics, and therefore the MI and official statistics will not be directly comparable.

See the ‘guidance tab’ in the accompanying data tables for more information about this,

Universal Credit declarations

Since the start of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, there has been unprecedented levels of demand for Universal Credit. From 1 March 2020 to 23 June 2020, the DWP has received 3.4 million individual declarations to Universal Credit. Since 16 March 2020, when the lockdown came into effect, DWP has seen 3.2 million individual declarations.

The latest data in this MI indicates that the volumes of declarations are getting back down to normal business levels.

Advance payments

The volume of advance payments also saw a large increase coinciding with the increased number of Universal Credit declarations. The latest data in this MI indicates that the advances volumes are now back at normal business levels.

From 1 March to 23 June 2020, 1,379,320 advance payments were issued. The majority of these, around 1,093,950, are new claim and benefit transfer advances which are available to those new to Universal Credit although an increase has also been seen in the budgeting and change of circumstances advances available to those already claiming Universal Credit.

Since the coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown, from 16 March 2020, DWP has paid around 1,285,750 advance payments with around 1,032,830 of these for new claim and benefit transfer advances.

Previous release

The first release of this management information (with data from 1 March to 12 April 2020) was published alongside the Universal Credit official statistics release, on 21 April 2020.

Further information

The latest release of Universal Credit official statistics includes the number of people on Universal Credit to 14 May 2020.

You can find further statistics related to the economic and social impacts of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the Office for National Statistics (ONS) release Coronavirus, the UK economy and society, faster indicators statistical bulletins.

The ONS bulletin is updated every Thursday with new data and experimental indicators, based on rapid response surveys, novel data sources and experimental methods.

The faster indicators includes new regular outputs, such as the latest responses from the business impact of COVID-19 survey, online prices of high-demand products, initial results from the weekly Opinions and Lifestyle Survey, and daily and weekly shipping data.

Published 5 May 2020
Last updated 30 June 2020 + show all updates

  1. Updated with Universal Credit management information from 1 March to 23 June 2020. This is the last release of this weekly information. After this release, Universal Credit information will continue to be released in the monthly and quarterly official statistics publications.

  2. Updated with Universal Credit management information from 1 March to 16 June 2020.

  3. Updated with Universal Credit management information from 1 March to 9 June 2020.

  4. Updated with Universal Credit management information from 1 March to 2 June 2020.

  5. Updated with Universal Credit management information from 1 March to 26 May 2020.

  6. Updated with Universal Credit management information from 1 March to 19 May 2020.

  7. Updated with Universal Credit management information from 1 March to 12 May 2020.

  8. Updated the data tables with Universal Credit management information from 1 March to 5 May 2020.

  9. First published.

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